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First Lady Melania Trump Gives the White House a Makeover
https://time.com/5679550/melania-trump-white-house-makeover/
BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE / AP SEPTEMBER 17, 2019
(WASHINGTON) — She’s done a lot with the place.
Like anyone who has ever spruced up their home, Melania Trump will have a few new touches to showcase Friday when guests visit the White House for only the second state dinner of the Trump presidency.
There’s refreshed wall fabric in the Red Room, repurposed draperies in the Green Room and restored furniture in the Blue Room. And those are just some of the home improvement projects the first lady has overseen to keep the well-trod public rooms at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. looking their museum-quality best.
Some of the projects were long overdue. Sunlight streaming into the Red Room had left some of the wall fabric “so faded it was almost pink,” said Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, which helps finance upkeep of some rooms in the 132-room mansion. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy founded the private, nonprofit organization in 1961.
“Those rooms should always look their very best and it was just very faded and really, really needed to be done,” McLaurin said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife, Jenny, and guests for Friday’s three-course dinner in their honor should have an opportunity to check out the spiffed-up public rooms.
In her role as caretaker, the first lady — whoever she is — meets regularly with the chief usher, the head curator and other White House staff to figure out what improvements should top the to-do list.
Mrs. Trump, who keeps a relatively low profile as first lady, has put her interest in history to use overseeing the restoration projects.
“Our family is grateful to live in this true symbol of our nation’s history, but we are even more honored to play a part in restoring and enhancing our country’s sacred landmark,” she said at a May reception